The present invention relates to photofinishing methods and systems, and more particularly to methods and systems of controlling orders in a wholesale photofinishing operation.
In conventional wholesale photofinishing laboratories, customer rolls of film arrive in envelopes from retail dealers containing owner""s name and instructions for developing, and the details of the photographic output desired. The individual dealer-designed envelopes used to transport film are of a common size, however, most are unique, with different locations on the envelope for instructions and information. Consequently some instructions are missed and some are misinterpreted. In addition, because the envelope contains owner information, it must be maintained in the same order as the films throughout the photofinishing steps in order to return the film and prints to the proper owner. What is desired is a method to eliminate the need for envelopes within the photofinishing laboratory, while insuring that customer instructions are followed and the customer receives their original film order.
The Advanced Photographic System provides a number imprinted on the film cassette (called a Cassette ID or CID) and the same number exposed on the film (called a Film ID or FID), so that after processing, the film and cassette may be reunited. However, customer identification and order information are not associated with this number, nor is the CID necessarily unique within a photofinishing laboratory. That is, within a given laboratory on a single night, there may be several pairs of Advanced Photographic System films with the same FID or CID.
There is a need therefore for an improved method of photofinishing that avoids the problems noted above.
The need is met according to the present invention by providing a method and system for photofinishing, that includes generating a unique roll ID number for a roll of photographic film to be finished; recording customer order information for the roll of film; associating the customer order information with the unique roll ID number in a central computer facility; marking the roll of film with a machine readable version of the unique roll ID number; and reading the roll ID number on the roll of film, and accessing the customer order information from the central computer facility to control a photofinishing operation, whereby the roll of film can be transported to a photofinishing laboratory without the use of an envelope bearing customer order information.
The present invention provides for a means of associating the customer roll of film with the customer name and the customer instructions for the photofinishing of the roll of film. It provides a means of automated handling of rolls of film within a photofinishing laboratory, and eliminates the need for the retail bags to identify rolls of films.